Scott Walker’s media booster accuses Lena Taylor of being a gang member

How dirty is the Milwaukee county executive’s race going to get?

Less than a few weeks before the first debate between County Executive Scott Walker and challenger State Senator Lena Taylor, the rhetoric on Walker’s side is already in the gutter. In his most recent column, WISN radio host Mark Belling, one of Walker’s most reliable media surrogates, has taken a cheap and unmistakably racist shot at Taylor.

Commenting on a bill he opposes that would raise the age at which some juvenile offenders could be charged as an adult, Belling wrote:

It’s not surprising that the bill is sponsored by some Milwaukee County Democrats like Sen. Lena Taylor, as they are chronically soft on crime and sympathetic to their increasingly influential gang bosses.

Gang bosses?

Who, exactly, are Lena Taylor’s “gang bosses” and how, exactly, has she been sympathetic to them?

That Belling would seek to associate Taylor, an African American who represents a central city district, with gang activity is, perhaps, not surprising. Belling has a long record of being an appalling race baiter.

But, in this case, he’s even more blatant than usual. Belling notes the bill is also supported by Senator Jim Sullivan of Wauwatosa, Representative Tony Staskunas of West Allis and Rep. Suzanne Jeskewitz of Menomonee Falls—who are all white—but doesn’t suggest that their backing of the legislation has anything to do with supporting gang activity.

Only Taylor is said to be under the influence of “gang bosses.”

As Scott Walker starts to plan his campaign, he’s counting on Mark Belling and Charlie Sykes to inundate the airwaves and their websites with anti-Taylor messages in the next few months. That is the purpose of talk radio—doing whatever it takes to get the anointed candidates elected. Don’t think so? Just ask Mike Huckabee.

Belling is already obliging Walker in the county executive race by trotting out this viciousness about Taylor.

Will Walker repudiate what Belling, one his loudest, if—wink, wink—unofficial surrogates said?

It depends on if Walker thinks he needs Belling’s vile messaging to win.

At this point in the race, Belling apparently thinks Walker needs this kind of help. And that’s probably saying something.